Chebass88 gets stronger day by day.

[Chebass88]

Thanks guys! I've already starting eating plenty of peanut brittle from the local candy store, Christmas beers, in addition to cookies, egg nog, spiced nuts, etc. I have a nice prime rib to be cooked on Christmas. Leftover prime rib is awesome when fried up with some really sharp cheddar cheese on a fresh roll.

[Chebass88]

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Santa's bringing PRs!

Press: 95x8*, 135x8*, 155x6, 180x4, 190x3, 200x2, 160x10; PR - 10RM, * - done in strict military fashion (heels together, no lean-back)

Curls: 95x5, 120x10, (100x12)x2; PR - 10RM

Time: 47 minutes
BW: 258.0 lb (and so it begins...)

Today is a great day. The gym was completely empty except for two other guys, both of whom were futzing around at the other end of the gym. No music, just the noise of the industrial grade fan to move some air around. Well, time to set PRs.

Merry Christmas, and stay strong. Hope you all eat too much, drink too much, have a great time with family and friends, and don't forget to train hard.

ian

[Chebass88]

Saturday, December 26, 2015

I can still lift heavy!

Deadlift: 135x5, 225x3, 315x1, 405x1, 495x1, 545x1, (595xF)x2, (545xF)x2, 500xF, 500x1; PR 1RM (no belt)

Rows: (225x15)x2, 225x10; PR - 15RM

Roman Chair Situps: (BW x 12)x3

Time: 68 minutes
BW: NM

I wanted to see if I could still lift heavy after a month of fixing the pulled erectors. 595 didn't budge, but that's okay - it will eventually. I could still do 545x1, and I pulled 500 without a belt. Based on my recent training, the beltless rep felt better. The awesome thing is that today's training was fueled by prime rib & scrambled eggs for breakfast, and an S-ton of cookies between breakfast time and 3 in the afternoon. YEAH!

Every Christmas, my in-laws ask me for a wish-list. I never know what to put on there - I'm a dad, so that usually means a tin of nuts, some socks, undershirts, and a sweater. Don't get me wrong - those things are super awesome. I always put some strength training books on there to increase my library a little bit at a time. This year I got Anthony Ditillo's books (Development of Muscular Power and Bulk! and The Development of Physical Strength). I've been reading his stuff on the Tight Tan Slacks blog for years, but now I have the original sources, and can take them anywhere. In his description of how he came to be interested in power & bulk training, he mentions that he learned of Doug Hepburn & Paul Anderson, and they heavily influenced his training. Solid. When I finish the books, I'll write up a little review. So far they are great.

Here is video proof of today's efforts. The row video is a little long - the song is awesome, and Gilchrest can't be the only guy dancing in his garage while lifting weights.

545x1, belted.


500x1, raw


Row 225x15


Train hard, friends!

[Mahendra]

Solid lifting man. It's great that you're lifting so heavy so quickly after your injury!

[Chebass88]

Sunday, December 27, 2015

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six new PRs.

Bench: 135x5, 225x5, 275x1, 300x5, 350x1, 320x3, 270x9; PRs - 5,1,3,9 RMs

Curls: 135x8, 175xF, 155x2, 125x10; PRs - 8RM, 10RM

Time: 74 minutes
BW: NM

What a great day. Six new PRs. I had intended to make today another clock-puncher, but it is the last bench session of the year. Why not do something special? And who doesn't love a couple of curl PRs? I have finally reached the maximum BRO bench of tree-fiddy.

It is so awesome to set new PRs every training session. It is rewarding to see your hard work, but it is incredibly helpful to learn how to push hard. As long as the numbers keep moving up - everything is great.

Video evidence:
BENCH 270x9


BENCH 300x5


BENCH 320x3


BENCH 350x1


CURL 135x8


Get it on in the morning, now!

[Chebass88]

I strive to achieve the starting strength method of deadlifting, but come up short in a few areas. One of the biggest differences for me is the setup & chest up / getting the back tight cue (the folks upstairs refer to this as "squoze"). When I do it per the book, I think I spend too much effort concentrating on getting the upper back tight - my pull is lost. It might just be an artifact of not being used to pulling using that method.

Thanks! Up next: 365...

[Chebass88]

I wanted to provide a year-end review, to document progress over the past year.

Programming in 2015.
1. January - Olympic technique work. I got a copy of Everett's book for Christmas last year, so I set out to learn the squat variants of the lifts. I learned that I don't like fishing around for a good squat position while trying to secure weight on my shoulders or overhead. I also decided to begin doing the high bar back squat - if OLY lifters recommended it, and I wanted to be good at OLY lifting, I figured I'd give it a try. I got tired of doing OLY assistance lifts & not spending enough time on the big lifts (deadlift, squat, bench, press, curl, etc.)

2. February - March 2015. Super Natural Strength / Olympic Lifts. I got a copy of Bob Whelan's Super Natural Strength for my birthday last January. I guess his method of training could be best summed up as working in balanced planes of motion (horizontal push / horizontal pull, vertical push / pull, squat, deadlift) on a weekly basis. This was basically:

Day 1:
Bench / Row / Shrugs / Press / Lat pulldowns (pullups) / Squats

Day 2:
Incline Bench / Pullovers / Deadlifts / Dips / Curls / Leg press

Sets & reps were effectively 3x8 for upper body & 2x10 or 2x20 for lower body lifts. I combined these with two days for the OLY lifts. This was a decent training period, with some decent progress made. OLY lifts were mostly done with 8 doubles working towards 8 triples. What ended this period was a desire to return to hoisting heavy weights.

3. April - mid May 2015. Iron Sport Strength Method & OLY lifts. I've had good success using the Iron Sport Strength Method (Steve Pulcinella's method), so I made two days for the big lifts (day 1: bench / row / squat, day 2: press/curl/deadlift) and two for the OLY lifts. Progress was going nicely, but sessions were really long, and I felt the deadlift was getting short-changed. After some serious thought (during my morning dog-walk, most likely), I decided I'd rather have a huge deadlift than a mediocre OLY lift. So I dropped the OLY lifts.

4. May - mid August 2015. Iron Sport Strength Method for 4 big lifts. A lot of solid progress made during this point. I was really tired by mid-August, so I took a deload week then. In retrospect, I would have been better off hitting it hard the following week, but I changed programs (again).

5. August - November 2015. This started off as a Doug Hepburn inspired program with 8 doubles adding reps until 8 triples are met. It quickly morphed into "do a minimum of X reps at or above Y weight". Everything was progressing decently, and I decided a 605 deadlift was within reason to accomplish by the end of the year.

6. November 2015 - The 605 Program. Deadlift got kicked into high gear, with lots of hamstring and lower back work. (upper body work remained the same). This lasted three weeks until I pulled my spinal erectors on a 515 double (yes, I got both reps!) due to a shitty setup.

7. Late November 2015 - Present. Rehab Program. Did the high rep program from Ken Leistner' Abbreviated Routine for squats & deads, with upper body work the same as previous. Some progress was made (progress is IMPERATIVE!).

Up next: Training for 2016.

[Chebass88]

Ah, the week between Christmas & New Years. A perfect opportunity to plan the most thoroughly bitchin' training program.

So, I set my goals first. (Training without goals is just wanking in a gym). Here they are per lift:

Deadlift: 605x1, 500x10, & various lifts in between.

Squat: Initially, the squat is to support the deadlift progression. When the 605 deadlift is met, my next goal would likely be 405x20 on the squat. That is a nice and arbitrary plate math, very likely a "speak to Jesus" set. Sounds awesome!

Bench: 365x1 & various rep maxes accordingly.

Press: Bodyweight (~258 lb)

Curl: Another 15 lbs on the curl would be awesome (185x1). More would be even better. Various rep maxes accordingly.

Row: No specific goal, just keeping it moving along.

Pullups: No specific goal, just keep them moving along.


Here is how I intend to accomplish them:
Deadlift. The Iron Sport Strength Method is probably the best method I've used for gains on the deadlift. I'm going to do a cycle, beltless, to continue making sure my back musculature pull is okay.

Squat: When 605 is met for the deadlift, likely add in another higher rep squat session. This will require some thought down the road.

Bench: I gain strength REALLY well using the 8x2 --> 8x3 Hepburn methods. Doing this with monthly max testings works well.

Press: I'd like to do some dumbbell work alongside pressing. Press rep scheme likely 8-6-4-4-4-10 or so.

Curl: 2x/week, one "volume" and the other "intensity" --> maybe setting higher rep range curls & then using an 8x2 --> 8x3 method for "intensity".

Rows: I haven't really figured out a great progression for this lift yet. Maybe something like a 10-6-4 rep scheme with progression at each weight once all reps met.



2016 will be an awesome year for training!

[Chebass88]

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Lift weight. Feel great.

Press: 95x8, 135x5, 155x3, 185x1, 205x1, 225xF, 225x1, 210x3, 175x8, 230xF, 210x1; PRs - 3RM, 8RM

Pullups - 48 total in 4 grip widths - extra wide, wide, normal, & close

Roman Chair Situps: 12, 14, 15

Time: 79 minutes
BW: NM.

Awesome. A couple more PRs to wrap up 2015. 230 was not to be today - next time!

I bought and installed a rafter mounted pullup bar a few years ago. I put brightly colored zip ties after each fist's width from the outside. I did this so I could objectively see improvement for various grip widths. They are: extra wide (~31 inches between index fingers) down to "close" (~6 inches between index fingers). I make a little table in my logbook and alternate through the various grips. It is a way to make pullups a little more fun than simply cranking out numerous sets at the same width.

Happy New Year, internet people.

Video of presses below.

225x1. I would have liked more, but hitting my current 1RM is fine with me. It isn't all that smooth, but when I can press my bodyweight, I'll be able to do 225 nicely.


210x3. I display some real questionable technique here, including the "gaze at the bar as it goes skyward" routine.


175x8. Better technique (in that I don't gaze at the bar as it goes up). I thought for a brief moment that I could attempt 10 reps (a new 10RM), but a small amount of doubt crept in to my head, and the hesitation meant only 8 reps. Next time!

[Meshuggah]

Congrats on all the PR's !! Have A Great New Year.